KARACHI: The government has planned to auction 43 oil and gas exploration blocks in June 2010 in an attempt to mitigate the energy crises in the country, which has aggravated owing to the rising fuel prices, said an official of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources.
The auction includes five offshore blocks and the remaining blocks are located in all the four provinces of country - Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and North West Frontier Province.
“Its getting costly to import furnace oil and gas is falling short against the rising demand of the energy, where the only way out is to increase upstream activities” said an official of the ministry.
The country’s current gas production is about 4.2bcfd and the unmet constrained demand is in excess of 1bcfd.
The country imports around 85 percent of its oil needs. Pakistan imports 4.3 million tons of high-speed diesel and 5 million tons of fuel oil per annum. Pakistan’s current oil output is around 65,000 bpd.
The country in December 2009 awarded 41 blocks to companies mix of local and international businesses.
Among the winning bidders was Pakistan Petroleum Limited, the country’s largest gas producer, while BP and ENI also secured licenses.
No comments:
Post a Comment